February 5th, 2008

2.5- Liveblog: NEW JERSEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

By Kevin Meacham on February 5th, 2008

6:01 p.m. - Welcome, everyone, to the Rutgers Athletic Center in Piscataway, N.J. The UConn women are in my homeland tonight, as the nation’s top-ranked team travels to take on archrival and No. 7 Rutgers here in about an hour.

 There’s a bit of buzz around here - not only are there two Top 10 teams involved, as well as the two favorites to win the Big East, but the fans are no doubt anxiously planning new and innovative ways to say “Geno Auriemma sucks.” We’ll see what we come up with in an hour. Stay with us at the Daily Campus blog if you can’t catch the game, as we’ll have updates just prior to the game, as well as a couple updates per half and following the game.

Also, if anyone could alert the Rutgers media staff that we don’t have a spot in any of the 23 press boxes circling the RAC, that’d be great.

 KM

6:45 p.m. - Problem one has been solved - we do have a spot, high above the court. We also have chairs, which is nice. Now all we need is air conditioning, because it is at least 80 degrees in here. The plus side is that we do get to sit between Kara Wolters, Bob Joyce and the WTIC crew and our friends at WHUS.

But enough about that - you want to know about the game. So far, RU fan shenanigans have been kept to a minimum. One sign read “Knights Have Swords, Huskies Have Fleas,” which is undeniably true. Huskies also have claws. A few interesting things to keep an eye on - if you read today’s preview, you’d know that Lorin Dixon needs to handle the Rutgers press or, alternatively, give the ball up to Renee Montgomery and let her run the offense. That does take away a scoring option, so Dixon could see minimal minutes if she coughs up the ball early.

Maya Moore is the other key. She hasn’t experienced the house of horrors past UConn teams have here. We’ll see what this kid is really made of tonight - can she respond under the pressure of 8,000 fans calling for her head? UConn just hasn’t been tested on the road like they will be tonight.

 The scoreboard shows Meghan Gardler getting the start, but it must be a misprint, because Dixon is the starting point guard. Back in 15 with the starting lineups.

7:00 p.m. - Full disclosure before we get started here - I HATE Rutgers. You may get my full, able-to-be-printed discourse on the State University of N.J. at http://media.www.dailycampus.com/media/storage/paper340/news/2006/10/25/Sports/Not-A.Big.Fan.Of.Rutgers-2400779.shtml. That said, that won’t mean I’m going to mock them more than is deserved. Like, I won’t point out that every piece of official Rutgers paper has ‘Go Knights’ on it.

Anyways, on to the game; sizable UConn crowd here. I’ll be back after one or two media timeouts during the first half to give you the goings-on, and then back at halftime.

Your starting lineups:

#7 RUTGERS (18-3, 8-1 Big East)

PG Matee Ajavon (12.6 PPG, 3.7 RPG); SG Epiphany Prince (13.1 PPG, 5.7 PPG); SF Heather Zurich (5.4 PPG, 2.9 RPG); PF Essence Carson (9.8 PPG, 5.5 RPG); C Kia Vaughn (9.8 PPG, 8.9 RPG)

#1 UCONN (21-0, 8-0 Big East)

PG Lorin Dixon (2.7 PPG, 1.9 RPG); SG Renee Montgomery (12.1 PPG, 2.8 RPG); SF Maya Moore (17.0 PPG, 6.7 RPG); PF Brittany Hunter (7.3 PPG, 4.4 RPG); C Tina Charles (14.0 PPG, 10.0 RPG)

7:20 p.m. - Just a quick correction - Rashida “Pitt Killer” Juniad started for Rutgers, not Zurich.

UConn is up 18-10 with 11:04 remaining in the first. C. Vivian Stringer was not kidding about her team’s proclivity to turn the ball over. Without looking at the official stats I’d say RU has given the ball up 5 or 6 times already. Neither team is making too many outside shots and that is probably the worst sign for Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights simply do not have the firepower to play a game with so many possessions. The fact is, if Rutgers is going to win this game they’re going to have to hold UConn under 65.

By the way, Maya Moore looks extremely nervous out there, missing a few jump shots badly, and Lorin Dixon turned the ball over on UConn’s first possession, and Ketia Swanier replaced her. Back later this half.

7:45 p.m. - UConn up 27-20 with 3:22 remaining. Rutgers has tried the full-court ‘55′ press a couple times now, with limited success. They’re harrassing the UConn guards all the way up the court, but UConn has gotten two points against it each time. Stringer is banking on her team keeping it close and then pressing UConn to death late in the second half. It worked last March, but if UConn can stretch this lead to 10 or more by the half, Rutgers is going to be in big trouble. They can’t press for a full 40 minutes because of their limited depth.

Meanwhile, Maya Moore has two fouls, Lorin Dixon is playing like a woman possessed and Renee Montgomery has 10 points. Back before the second half tip.

8:10 p.m. - UConn leads, 33-24 at halftime. It’s been a game just as everyone expected - ground-out, low-octane offense. Fourteen turnovers and six assists between the two teams. UConn’s got to feel pretty good about getting through four ‘55′ press calls and ending up with six points. If the Huskies consistently score on the press, Rutgers has absolutely no means of coming back. The two teams also combined to shoot 2-for-16 from 3-point range, so that’s something to keep an eye on.

Maya Moore is scoreless, meaning her 21-game streak of double-digit points is in jeopardy. Stay with us here at the RAC - should be a great second half.

8:35 p.m. - Things have gotten considerably more interesting. Epiphany Prince has caught fire and Rutgers has clawed back into a 46-46 tie with 11:42 left. This is danger time for UConn - Maya Moore has three fouls and just five points. The crowd is way into the game and momentum is all on the side of the Scarlet Knights. I’d like to warn our affiliates back in Storrs that we may be going long tonight.

8:51 p.m. - The news gets worse for UConn - Maya Moore picks up her 4th with 3:37 to go and tied at 61-61. Rutgers is already in the bonus and is pressing UConn to death. UConn is in dire trouble here in Piscataway, down 63-61 with 2:54 to go.

9:00 p.m. - Rutgers holds a 4-point lead with 1:18 remaining, with Epiphany Prince going absolutely nuts. She’s got 33, including the last 7 for Rutgers. The undefeated season looks like it may come to an end tonight.

9:06 p.m. - And that looks like it. Renee Montgomery fumbled a pass with 12 seconds left, Essence Carson hit the only free throw she needed to and Rutgers leads by 4 with six seconds left. Ketia Swanier hits a lay-up with 0.4 seconds remaining and that will do it. A shocker - Rutgers 73, UConn 71.

Unbelievable.

Back after the game.

10:27 p.m. - Still in shock here at the RAC. The scoreboard still says 73-71, so yes, the undefeated dreams have been dashed. I can’t help but feel that this could turn out to be a positive. As we learned Sunday, it is nearly impossible for an undefeated team to whether the emotions of the chase for perfection. A loss here might be exactly what’s needed in order to return focus to UConn’s game - it seemed like UConn took it to the rim far too infrequently, and the result was a game-deciding 22-9 free throw edge in favor of Rutgers.

While I won’t be at Seton Hall Saturday, I will have something up following open practice later this week, then perhaps a special treat for everybody on Saturday.

Interesting - and disturbing - comments from Geno following the game, especially considering Charde Houston.

“I can’t play Charde anymore,” Auriemma said. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t. There’s too many things that happen when she’s on the court, I have to go with Kaili over Charde.”

Houston has been a bit of a headcase, but the Huskies can’t afford to lose another potential contributor to injury or coach exile.

Not a banner night to be a UConn supporter, but nobody’s perfect. From Piscataway, have a good night and thank you very much for enjoying tonight’s live blog.

KM

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February 2nd, 2008

2.2 - Liveblog: The Friar’s Fortune

By Kevin Meacham on February 2nd, 2008

6:40 p.m. - And welcome back, everybody. This time, we’re in Gampel Pavilion for UConn and Providence, set to tip in about 15 minutes. Also, these post names will get progressively more awkward as the season goes.

 A couple interesting notes around the Big East this afternoon - No. 4 Rutgers ended No. 14 Pittsburgh’s undefeated run in conference, 64-60 in Pittsburgh today. Rashida Juniad came up huge against the Panthers, who were without star post player Marcedes Walker for most of the game. Juniad scored 11 points to lead the Scarlet Knights to a come-from-behind road victory. That, of course, sets up the titanic struggle for first place at the RAC on Tuesday. Assuming, of course, UConn gets by the Friars tonight.

 Also notable is that No. 22 Syracuse, who played UConn the closest thus far this season, fell to a below-average Georgetown team earlier today, 78-71. A bad loss by any standard, it’s really crushing for a Syracuse program who had finally emerged from the doldrums to be a nationally-competitive program. Hopefully (for both the Cuse and the Big East’s prospects of getting 8 or 9 teams into the NCAAs), the Cuse can rebound this week against Marquette and Seton Hall, before a tough game against Notre Dame in two weeks.

 Back with starting line-ups in about 15 minutes.

————————–6:57 p.m.—————————–

Bit of a surprise at the outset of tonight’s game - Brittany Hunter appears to be inactive tonight, which is actually not too surprising given her past history. What is surprising is that, according to the scoreboard, Kaili McLaren will start for the first time this year. McLaren started five games last year.

Tonight’s starters:

UConn (20-0, 7-0 Big East) - PG Lorin Dixon (2.7 PPG); SG Renee Montgomery (12.4 PPG); SF Maya Moore (17.0 PPG, 6.8 RPG); PF Kaili McLaren (4.5 PPG, 3.4 RPG); C Tina Charles (13.9 PPG, 10.0 RPG)

Providence (11-9, 1-6 Big East) - PG Kendria Holmes (11.0 PPG); SG Brittany Dorsey (6.0 PPG); SF Mi-Khida Hankins (11.2 PPG, 4.2 RPG); PF Shantee Darrian (9.1 PPG, 8.2 RPG); C Jessica Clark (3.0 PPG, 2.6 RPG)

Back later during the first half.

————————–7:38 p.m.—————————–

 Courtside here, as UConn holds a 38-17 lead with 6:14 remaining. I have to be careful writing this because Hasheem Thabeet’s feet are resting on my shoulders - the big fella’s in the front row behind us.

The game is going as expected, UConn is dominating inside (22 points in the paint) and as a result, the Huskies are shooting 75 percent(!) from the field. Maya Moore and Tina Charles have 11 and 10 points, respectively. Moore’s 11 all came in the span of about 2:00 midway through the first. All signs point to another lopsided UConn victory headed into Rutgers on Tuesday.

More at halftime.

————————–8:09 p.m.—————————–

Halftime is just wrapping up here at Gampel, and it is 49-23 UConn. The Huskies are scoring at will against a similarly-sized (but less strong) Providence team. The Friars just don’t have the shooters or post play to keep this close.

Ketia Swanier had a nice run of 8 straight points to close out UConn’s scoring in the first half, which adds yet another key weapon for the Huskies going forward.

There’s not much else to report, other than Charde Houston’s disappearance (she played just five minutes). If the situation warrants, I’ll be back later in the second half. Otherwise, to the post-game!

————————–9:40 p.m.—————————–

Back at Gampel - UConn wins once again, 80-54, to improve their record to 21-0. The game was not as close as even this score indicates, as Providence scored the game’s final nine points in the last four or five minutes.

The history of the UConn-Providence series is a microcosm for the history of UConn women’s basketball. The Friars were one of the Big East’s early powers, reaching three consecutive Big East tournament finals from 1989-91. Indeed the last time the Friars beat UConn in Storrs (or Hartford) came in the 1990 Big East championship game at Gampel. Then, at one point, Providence led the all time series, 21-14. Since March 7, 1993, however, UConn has won 23 straight in the series - coinciding with the school’s rise to become a national juggernaut. Of course, everyone knows about the Huskies’ 5 national titles, 8 Final Fours and so on.

For Providence, however, the game passed them by. The Friars lost to Toledo, 74-64, in the first round of the 1992 NCAA Tournament. The next season, they made it all the way to the Big East championship game before losing to Miami, dropping their record to 15-15. A 10-21 record in 1994, followed by subsequent seasons of 13-15 and 12-15 sent Providence into perpetual mediocrity. Things hit rock bottom in 2004, when head coach Susan Yow’s team finished 4-23, and again in 2005, when they went 1-27. Current coach Phil Seymore has brought Providence back to respectability and the team has an outside chance at its first winning record since that 1992 team. Either way, the Friars are an interesting case of early powers getting lost in the shuffle.

 That’ll be all for tonight’s history lesson. I’ll be back hopefully Monday with some pre-Rutgers updates, and then the blog will be LIVE! from Piscataway for the big match-up between No. 1 UConn and No. 4 Rutgers. The first shot’s already been fired - Auriemma seemed to imply Rutgers fans were less than faithful to their team (”Their great and passionate fans will show up, because they DO show up for the Connecticut game”) after last year’s hullabaloo over the UConn coach calling Rutgers fans “miserable.” Should be fun.

See you Monday (Go Not-The-Patriots!).

 KM

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February 2nd, 2008

Lazy Saturday

By Kevin Meacham on February 2nd, 2008

Live from Hilltop residences, looking over the marshmallow dome of Gampel Pavilion, welcome to today’s Daily Campus blog.

As I sit here watching a historically-ugly UConn-Pittsburgh men’s game, it’s also worthy to note that the UConn women will be completing an odd home doubleheader tonight against Providence at Gampel.

After a disappointing(!) 23-point win over South Florida Wednesday, Geno Auriemma made sure his players realize they need to come to play every day. He has also, as is February custom, lightened the up-and-down portions of practice so as not to wear the thinner-than-usual Huskies down.

Auriemma has repeatedly said that the only-half-jokingly-named “Three Stooges” - Tina Charles, Charde Houston and Kaili McLaren - will be the difference in whether UConn plays for the national title or ends their season short, as it has the last three seasons. Charles was benched for much of the second half Wednesday, but looked like she was on a mission for the few minutes of play after her benching. Interesting to see how she starts off tonight, as she’s a bad match-up for 95 percent of post players in America.

Tip time is 7 p.m. and the Daily Campus blog will be here before, during and after the game. Stay tuned.

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January 30th, 2008

1.30 - Live! from the XL Center

By Kevin Meacham on January 30th, 2008

Hello all,

Welcome to the XL Center in XL, Connecticut for tonight’s game between No. 1 UConn and South Florida, tipping off about 50 minutes from now on CPTV. Truth be told, not a whole lot of news to report tonight in Huskyville, other than the daily Brittany Hunter watch. The 6-3 senior center is likely to start, as nothing wrong has yet been reported with her surgically-repaired knee. That, of course, is subject to how Hunter feels during the pregame shootaround.

Outside of our little shell here, it’s a typical night in the Big East, with five league games on the docket. At first glance, it appears that all five match-ups feature an upper-half team taking on a lower-half team; the game to keep an eye on is No. 14 (and 6-0 in league play) Pittsburgh traveling to Philadelphia to take on Villanova. Agnus Berenato’s team has three of the more talented players in the Big East, and it will be interesting to see if the Panthers can give the Huskies a run Feb. 17.

 As for now, it’s off to dinner; back with more shortly before gametime. Stay with the Daily Campus blog all game long for in-game updates and analysis; in addition, I won’t be selling media guides for $50. Unless solicited.

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January 28th, 2008

Welcome

By Kevin Meacham on January 28th, 2008

Hello all,

Welcome to the Daily Campus blog. My name is Kevin Meacham and I’ll be your host for all the women’s basketball-related action.

Nobody wants to read about me personally, so I’ll save all that for the end. First off, a little mission statement for what I’ll try to accomplish with the blog for the remaining 10 weeks of the women’s basketball season:

There is no more exciting time to pay attention to UConn women’s basketball. After four years of wandering through the relative wilderness of the lower-top 10, the Huskies are back in force. Sunday’s dominant victory over No. 16 Notre Dame improved UConn’s record to 19-0. The Huskies are ranked No. 1 in the country, the only undefeated team in the nation and, but for injuries to two starters, the prohibitive favorite to win the school’s sixth national championship in April.

Next year? UConn will return four of the five players who started last night’s game. They will add 6-foot-4 phenom Elena Delle Donne (among others in the nation’s top recruiting class). It’s enough to make one just imagine the possible ring types Geno Auriemma will be trying out in the near future.

But those are coming attractions. This year, if you’re not paying attention to the UConn women, you’re missing the best team on campus, and the best bargain deal for any sport on campus. It’ll be my job to provide regular updates following every open practice; before, during and after each game; throughout the Big East and NCAA Tournaments; and at any random point where I have thoughts to share about the women’s game.

Also, while this post isn’t particularly humorous, I try to bring the funny occassionally. Just not at 4:30 in the morning. So we’ll see how that goes.

In short, if I can use my knowledge and expertise (and charming way with words, so some say) and enthusiasm to inform you, I’ve done my job. If you’ve been a fan since the days of Jen Rizzotti, Nykesha Sales and Swin Cash - or if you’re confused as to why there is no 10-second halfcourt violation - I hope I can make this blog one of the destination sites for fans of UConn women’s basketball. That’s the hope anyway.

Also, I tend to write a lot. Hope you don’t mind. Enjoy the blog, and please come back.

KM

P.S. - I’m a 6th-semester journalism major in my second year of covering (and third year being involved with) the UConn women’s team. Last year, I followed the team to places like Piscataway, N.J. (my home state), Worcester, Mass., New York City and Fresno, Calif. There’s not a sport I don’t enjoy - and women’s basketball is no exception. I’ve been on the floor of the Hartford Civic Center for all 11 women’s Big East tournament games in each of the last two years, as I plan to do in March.

As we move through the rest of the season, I’m sure I’ll relive some other biographical details but as I said earlier, nobody likes to read this stuff. If you’ve read this long, congratulations! See you sometime before Wednesday’s game against South Florida.

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